Litter Training Potty training

[chucknlarrysmom]

Hi there! So we're into our first week in the new cage and fleece bedding. I have a "kitchen" area with aspen bedding where all eating is centered. The rest of the cage is designated for play and exercise, no food or water there. I am having the worst time with their poops and pees! It's everywhere! :melodrama

Is there any way to potty train these buggers?? I sweep up all their poos MANY times a day and put them in the litter box hoping that they'll get the hint. Am I asking too much? Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

[GPigz]

To me the fleece thing just seams WAY too time consuming and messy! I dont like the idea at all. I know guinea pig's are hard to potty trained, though it can be done. But in my opinion, it would just be easier and better to leave hem on bedding. But like I said, thats my opinion.
Just because everyone else is using fleece doesnt mean you have to, if you find bedding better and less messy, use bedding. But if you have the time to potty train and work with the mess then kudos to you.
Im sorry I cant help much on the potty training thing as I havnt looked much into it as I dont plan to potty train my boys. I am going to use bedding.

I hope someone can help you out though

 

[Shurrim]

Put a litter at the places they go the most.
Someone also suggested to put a corner litter in each corner, then remove one, then another.. until there is only one left.
They will still poop around though. More or less, depends on pigs I guess.

 

[LightningPig1]

Some are easy to train some are not. One trick is to put timothy hay in the litter box. I once tried to litter train Lightning but I wasn't very consistent in cleaning the litter box putting hay in there many times a day. But for the most part he did about 2/3rds of his business in the litter box. I put his litter box in this one corner where he always went and that worked. But no matter how good you train them you will always find some loose poops in the cage.

 

[quechua601]

I successfully potty trained my pig (named Pig) in about a week. What I did was buy a corner litter box used for ferrets. I also used the critter care litter that came with it and bought some extra. I put the litter box in the corner of the cage where Pig went most often. I filled the litter box with some of the ferret litter. DO NOT use cat litter as the dust and particles are not good for their lungs. On top of that I put some soiled wood shavings and poops. I changed it as needed and she got the idea and now only pees in her box. The poops are kind of everywhere, but they are much easier to clean up. Because the ferret litter got to be expensive I now use yesterday's news, a recycled newspaper cat litter that has no added chemicals and is dust-free. I sprinkle a little of the ferret litter on top of that and it works like a charm. Hope this helps.

 

[Ashlie]

I had a non-fleece bedding for the first month and when i changed to fleece my piggies kept crying!!! then i noticed they werent pooping.so i got a small box and cut out a door and put their old bedding in there and now they poop in there! they potty trained them selves. i think because they became so use to going on the bedding that when i switched to fleece they didnt understand where to poop. guess i got lucky

 

[guinea808]

When we first got our pigs they lived in a pet store type cage “glorified litter box” with Aspen wood chips.

Later, when we found out about C&C cages and switched to fleece, we found it nearly impossible to clean off the hay seeds. And although they mostly used the bathroom in only 1 corner, the fleece was always a mess with hay and food.

We later added an upper “kitchen” area with Aspen wood chips where they eat and we put a litter box with Aspen chips in the corner of the lower fleece area.

Now, the fleece stays much cleaner and they go to the bathroom in the upper kitchen area and in the corner litter box about 90% of the time.

I think once they got used to going in the chips they basically litter trained themselves. Guess we got lucky!

Good luck!

 

[poptart]

I have a coro box with newspaper and a towel in it under the hayrack, it picks up all the loose hay (messy on the fleece) and gp's tend to go there often because they're over there eating most of the time. It doesn't eliminate all the poops for me, but it is majority of where they go!

 

[rRocketM]

I haven't yet seen this mentioned, but I believe (my opinion, based on my pig's behavior) that they prefer a little privacy, as silly as that may sound. What I mean is that a darker area is preferred over a completely open one. My little GiGi likes the back corners of the 1st floor which are shaded by the loft. While she does use her litter box in the loft (carefresh for now and a hay rack all in close proximity to the pellet dispenser and veggie dish), these two corners are the ones I am typically cleaning, with a stray poo pellet here or there. I am planning on draping a towel over her litter box to see if she uses it more. Just a thought...

 

[Nicolene]

Here's the thing.. The fleece is not supposed to stay clean. It replaces costly disposable bedding. It is the bedding. Pigs are "pigs", they are messy.

We have a larger than most hay bin and they do the majority of their business in there, as they spend most of their time there. That said, they still poop and pee in their pigloos when they sleep in them. I sweep the fleece right before I feed them, twice a day. And I move the pigloos to a dry spot.

The only time they did not poop and pee on the fleece was when we had their pigloos in the hay bin for a week, but even though the pigs LOVED it, they were getting so filthy that we couldn't let them sleep in there anymore and moved the pigloos back.

The only thing I do know is that they prefer doing it in their cage. When they run around the living room they will suddenly stop, run back and I'll see them peeing in the cage before they come back..

 

[curlygirl]

I have 2 corner litter boxes, one downstairs and one up stairs.. Bubbles uses both but i think the one on the bottom floor is where he likes to poo the most. He also moves it around when he likes..His poos in his igloo to, but if i move it he will move it where he wants it.. He is soo silly.

 

[PrttyChngaderas]

I have not finished reading this thread but, I have a few things to add. Hopefully I won't sound like an idiot broken record. Mind you, I just made the switch to fleece three weeks ago. I *LOOOOOOVE* it. And I am, generally, a lazy girl But, here's my story.

There are two cages in my home. The first one I have Carlos and Allen in. It's a 2x4 with a 1x2 kitchen extension. Carlos and Allen live in there. They are around 2 years old. They have fleece bedding now and some wonderful toys. They only have one water bottle and that is in the kitchen. Also in the kitchen they have a large homemade hay rack and they are fed only in there. The bedding in the kitchen is a few sprinkles of baking soda, several layers of newspaper followed by 2-3 inches of an even mixture Aspen chips and Carefresh. Like I said, until about three weeks ago when I switched to fleece, I was using the same mixture of bedding in the whole C&C cage. The smell was unbearable after a week and I started changing it every 4-5 days using a little less bedding but, it was still smelly and my husband started to complain (that cage is in his home office). We switch to the fleece and it's been a BLESSING, I tell you. For some reason, my big boys make their poops, 90% of the time, in the kitchen area. I change that every few days. The poop on the fleece is so seldom that I can just grab a few sheets of toilet paper and pick them up and then I toss them in the toilet! They love their new home and they have made my life SO MUCH simpler. There isn't the huge mess and spillage of the old bedding and less to go in the garbage. Someone on this site mentioned putting a few bricks going from the kitchen area to the rest of the cage. I did that and the hay issue is so not a problem. Whatever blades of grass end up there, I can usually dust bust them out. I then take the blankets outside and shake it out, let it sit on the railing for a few hours and somehow, that helps with the rest. One last good shake and it all goes into the washer.

The baby cage is a different story. I am going to post about that in a different thread. *laughs*

I definitely see why some people would want to stick to the other types of bedding and not fleece. For me, though, it's been nothing but EASY EASY with my big boys and I am sure it will end up that way EVENTUALLY with my babies.

 

[skhou]

I've successfully litter trained our two guinea pigs. They aren't 100% reliable, but they are poopin' and peein' in their designated litter box about 80% of the time. I use a jumbo size Lock-N-Litter pan filled with Fresh World Bedding secured to one corner of the cage. The beauty of this set up is it is super easy to clean the cage and the Fresh World Bedding absorb most of the odor from the guinea pigs' byproducts. I just need to unlock the litter box, dump the soiled litter, clean and deodorize the litter box, refill with bedding, and then re-lock


Litter box in, guinea pigs investigating the new accessory.


Guinea pigs uses it 80% of the time. Still pee around the corner, but all isolated and easy to clean up after

We're switching to fleece soon and this provides great training in preparation for their new bedding.